Office of the Historian
No. 4.
Mr. Tree to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of the United States,
Brussels, January 24, 1887. (Received February 10.)
No. 196.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I have duly received and carefully read your instruction No. 72, of the 5th instant, with inclosures, on the subject of the claim of the Government of Belgium, under the most favored-nation clause of its treaties with the United States, to participate in the benefits created in respect of tonnage dues by the fourteenth section of the shipping act of June 26, 1884.

I shall not fail, in obedience to your instructions, to fully advise you in the event of any indication coming to my knowledge of a disposition on the part of the Government of Belgium to renew its demand, either on the former basis or on the modified footing provided by the later amendatory act of 1886.

I have, etc.,

Lambert Tree.